(Wheeling: John F. M'Dermot, Public Printer, 1865)
Chap. 52. - An Act to amend the Charter of the West Virginia Central Railway Company.
Passed February 24, 1865.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
1. Sections eight, nine and twelve of the act passed March second, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, entitled "an act to incorporate the West virginia Central Railway Company," are hereby amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:
"8. The said company shall not be required to construct and equip that portion of said railway which lies north of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, until the state of Pennsylvania, or some company incorporated under the laws thereof, shall make provisions for the construction and equipment of a similar railway through the state of Pennsylvania connecting therewith, and enter, in good faith, upon the construction thereof; and as soon as a railway shall be commenced in the said state of Pennsylvania to connect with the railway authorized by this act, then the West Virginia Central Railway Company shall commence the construction of that portion of their railway lying between the Pennsylvania line and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and thereafter proceed to complete and equip the said portion, so that the same shall be in operation for the transportation of passengers and freight from the Pennsylvania line to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, as soon as the railway in the state of Pennsylvania intended to connect therewith shall be in operation from the point of conenction at the Pennsylvania line to some other railroad connecting therewith: Provided, that, if the West Virginia Central Railway Company, after it is organized under the provisions of this act, should ascertain by actual survey or otherwise, that the purposes of the company cannot be better attained by a change of the route as authorized by the second section of this act, and should determine to locate the route through the county of Preston, the said Central Railway shall intersect the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at some point east of Grafton, in the county of Taylor or Preston.
"9. It shall be lawful for the board of public works, at any time after the passage of this act, to subscribe on the part of the state to the capital stock of the West Virginia Central Railway Company eight thousand shares; which shares shall be paid for in the transfer by said board, of all the work or works and improvements made by the state of Virginia on state account, on that portion of the Covington and Ohio Railroad from the town of Charleston, in the county of Kanawha, to the terminus of the line of the location of the said Covington and Ohio Railroad westward. The said eight thousand shares shall be held to be the minimum value of said works and improvements. And, if at any time after the organizatio of the West Virginia Central Railway Company, and before any additional work is done upon the said part of the Covington and Ohio Railroad so transferred, the board of public works should desire an actual estimate made of the value of said part of said Covington and Ohio Railroad, and such valuation cannot be agreed upon by the board of public works and the West Virginia Central Railway Company, two disinterested engineers ahll be selected for the purpose of making such valuation, one of whom shall be selected by the board of public works and one by the West virginia Central Railway Company; which engineers, in case of disagreement, shall choose an umpire, whose valuation and determination in the premises shall be final, unless good cause be shown against their award. And in the event that the said works and improvements shall, by agreement of the board of public works and West Virginia Central Railway Company, or by the award aforesaid, be valued at a greater sum than four hundred thousand dolalrs, the board of public works shall subscribe such greater sum of the capital stock of said West Virginia Central Railway Company, to be paid for by the transfer herein provided for.
"12. The legislature reserves the right to alter or amend this act, but such alteration or amendment shall not affect or impair right of the creditors of the corporation to have the property and assets thereof applied in discharge of their respective claims, or of the stockholders to have the surplus which may remain, after providing for the debts and liabilities of the corpoartion, distributed among themselves according to their respective interests."
Timeline of West Virginia: Civil War and Statehood: February 1865